Now See Here!

September 01, 1990|By Jacqueline McNicol.

WILMETTE — Imagine having to raise a rumpus because Chicago children must go to school without glasses! Our parents conquered that problem in the depths of the Depression, remember? Eye-exam charts were set up in every principal`s office, and a child who needed glasses got glasses.

The need for this new rumpus is buried in Sharman Stein`s Tribune article on the diminished purchasing power of welfare allocations. One line says,

``Public aid furnishes one pair of glasses a year, and the (7-year-old)

lost hers so she`ll have to wait `til the year is up.``

I began calling around to make sure that such a thing couldn`t be true. But it is true. Public aid headquarters, when asked about glasses, gives a long-distance number to call Springfield. Eventually, another call to a local public aid office does bring assurance that in rare cases the wait is waived.

The Lions Eye Foundation, one of whose missions is to supply glasses worldwide, says that local Lions Clubs make up the cost if they learn of a child who needs replacement glasses. But no one organization is everywhere.

How quickly can somebody amend the policy? In the meantime, surely teams of public officials, private philanthropists and foundations could rise to the need, school by school through each faculty and local school council.

What Chicago could do for its kids in the 1930s ought not to be beyond us in the last months of 1990.